Walsdorf, Hanna. "»Charakter« und »Stil« im Musik- und Tanzdiskurs (ca. 1680-1750): Eine Begriffsgeschichte in Zitaten."

Walsdorf, Hanna. "»Charakter« und »Stil« im Musik- und Tanzdiskurs (ca. 1680-1750): Eine Begriffsgeschichte in Zitaten." Musiktheorie: Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 34, no. 2 (2019): 180-190.


Abstract:
Although the notion of character in music and dance was lexically undefined for centuries, it was nonetheless omnipresent in early modern treatises on music and dance. This article considers the history of the term, charting its use front its Ancient Greek source, through its employment in theoretical discourse, and its entanglement with synonymous terms (style, attribute, quality, ethics, affectation, and the like), to the subtle changes of meaning over time in the two fields of music and dance. By evaluating writings published in France and Germany between 1681 and 1754, this paper shows that disambiguation of the term was difficult for early modern theorists, because character in music and in dance was applicable both to the typical (genre or performer) and to the individual (composition or performer).